FPL Hall of Fame: Analysing the world’s best Fantasy managers

Our Hall of Fame was given a refresh at the end of 2021/22, allowing us to see how the list of best-performing Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers have been affected by last season’s points.

For the uninitiated, the Hall of Fame is a ranking system applied to everyone who takes part in either of our FPL leagues. Managers’ past and present performances are then tracked to give a Hall of Fame (HoF) rating.

The Live version of our Hall of Fame can only be viewed by Premium Members but everyone can access the Career Hall of Fame by clicking here.

Further information on the Hall of Fame is included at the bottom of this article, but alternatively, you can view this movie to listen to Mark Sutherns and Rate My Team’s Chris Atkinson discuss the feature.

Following our overview of the top 10 FPL managers, we now turn our attention to how they performed in 2021/22, from chip strategy to captaincy.

HALL OF FAME: THE TOP 10

STRATEGY ANALYSIS

CHIP USAGE

*Click the above graphic to expand

Chip strategies were varied amongst the top 10 managers in 2021/22, although Gameweek 37 proved a popular time to Free Hit, with six of the eight bosses who deployed the chip hitting over 100 points.

John Canning produced the best overall Bench Boost score, with 146, while Brusdal Brusdal was less successful, hitting just 79.

Meanwhile, the success of the Triple Captain chip came down to whether they were in the Gameweek 26 camp as Mohamed Salah hit 28 points against Norwich City and Leeds United, or whether they were less fortunate with his game-time in Gameweek 29.

However, Sean Connors and Petteri Yilmaa bucked the trend, handing the armband to Jarrod Bowen and Son Heung-min, who registered 21 and 12 points respectively.

1 FABIO BORGES

Overall rank: 222nd
Total points: 2739

Total captain points: 776
Captains: Salah (21), Son (5), Fernandes (3), Ronaldo (2), Weghorst, Saka, Richarlison, King, James, Cancelo, Bowen (1)
Total transfers: 42
Total points hits: 36
Immediate transfer points: 490
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (12), 3-5-2 (10), 4-3-3 (7)

Fábio consolidated his position at the top of the Hall of Fame by finishing 222nd in 2021/22.

The Portugal number one made his move over Christmas, climbing from 140k to the top 5,000 within six Gameweeks.

Using the excellent ‘Team Picks over Season’ tool via FPL Optimized, we can see that Fábio largely avoided the premium forwards in 2021/22. In fact, he only owned Harry Kane for two Gameweeks, which coincided with the deployment of his two Free Hit chips.

3-4-3 and 3-5-2 were his favoured formations, while only two managers in the Hall of Fame top 10 could beat him for captaincy points across the season.

Fábio has never ended up outside of the top 20,000 in eight seasons of playing, with the campaign just gone his sixth successive finish within the top 5k.

READ MORE: Our recent Q&A with Fábio Borges

2 FINN SOLLIE

Overall rank: 210th
Total points: 2740

Total captain points: 698
Captains: Salah (18), Ronaldo (6), Kane (3), Wood, Weghorst, Son, Richarlison, Raphinha, Jota, Havertz, Fernandes, Dennis, Bowen, Antonio (1)
Total transfers: 46
Total points hits: 56
Immediate transfer points: 431
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (10), 3-5-2 (9), 4-4-2 (8)

Finishing ahead of even Fábio in the season just gone was Finn Sollie, despite registering 78 fewer captaincy points than his Hall of Fame rival.

And he really mixed it up with captaincy, too, handing the armband to 14 different players across the season, including the likes of Chris Wood and Raphinha.

Like Fábio, his favoured formations were 3-4-3 and 3-5-2, although he did use a 4-4-2 on eight occasions.

This past season was Finn’s second successive overall rank inside the top 1,000, and the Norwegian was even threatening to win the whole thing when positioned at 35th in the world after Gameweek 32.

3 JOHN CANNING

Overall rank: 60th
Total points: 2771

Total captain points: 740
Captains: Salah (19), Ronaldo (3), Son, Kane, Jota, Fernandes (2), Weghorst, Richarlison, Mount, King, Coutinho, Cancelo, Bowen, Antonio (1)
Total transfers: 46
Total points hits: 56
Immediate transfer points: 449
Most-used formations: 3-5-2 (13), 3-4-3 (11), 4-4-2 (5)

Another manager to string together back-to-back top 1k finishes was John Canning, who ended an excellent 60th in 2021/22.

John got off to a very good start and was ranked inside the top 10,000 after Gameweek 1, and didn’t drop out of the top 20,000 from Gameweek 20 onwards.

A total of 13 finishes inside the top 40k have been recorded by John, eight of which have been inside the magic 10,000 mark.

4 BRUSDAL BRUSDAL

Overall rank: 2554th
Total points: 2673

Total captain points: 832
Captains: Salah (20), Kane, Fernandes (4), Ronaldo (2), Weghorst, Son, Richarlison, Jota, Havertz, Dennis, De Bruyne, Bowen (1)
Total transfers: 47
Total points hits: 56
Immediate transfer points: 545
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (14), 3-5-2 (10), 4-4-2 (5)

Brusdal Brusdal registered a whopping 832 captaincy points in 2021/22 and was successful with 30/38 picks.

The new Hall of Fame number four made an incredible leap from 1.2 million in Gameweek 8 to 3.6k in Gameweek 18, subsequently spending eight Gameweeks bobbing around the top 1,000.

A final overall rank of 2,554 was still excellent and the Norwegian’s seventh inside the top 10k.

5 MATT CORBRIDGE

Overall rank: 1180th
Total points: 2696

Total captain points: 712
Captains: Salah (19), Ronaldo, Kane (3), Son, Lukaku (2), Weghorst, Saka, Richarlison, Mount, King, James, Bowen, Antonio, Alexander-Arnold (1)
Total transfers: 43
Total points hits: 40
Immediate transfer points: 387
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (14), 4-3-3 (8), 3-5-2 (6)

A relative newcomer like Fábio, Matt has ‘only’ been playing FPL for eight seasons and finished with his highest ever rank in 2021/22, courtesy of a 1180th place finish.

Matt spent the entire season inside the top 25,000, with his Gameweek 1 rank of 14,006 his best of the campaign.

He was also the only manager in the top 10 to captain Trent Alexander-Arnold last season, surprisingly for his away trip to Leicester City in Gameweek 20, which produced just two points.

6 SEAN CONNORS

Overall rank: 278th
Total points: 2734

Total captain points: 743
Captains: Salah (17), Son (5), Ronaldo (3), Jota, Fernandes (2), Weghorst, Smith Rowe, Mount, Lukaku, Dennis, Coutinho, Cash, Bowen, Antonio (1)
Total transfers: 43
Total points hits: 44
Immediate transfer points: 326
Most-used formations: 4-4-2 (12), 3-5-2 (8), 3-4-3 (6)

Sean Connors was another Hall of Famer to finish inside the top 300 this season.

A run of 13 green arrows in the final 15 Gameweeks, plus a Gameweek 21 rank of 105th, helped Sean up to 278th in the world.

Notably, his favoured formation was a 4-4-2, while he was also only one of two managers on this list who didn’t Triple Captain Mohamed Salah, instead opting for Jarrod Bowen in Double Gameweek 21.

This was Sean’s second top 1k finish but he has also had two other ranks (1,044th and 1,002nd) that fell just short of that landmark number.

7 DAVID WILLIAMS

Overall rank: 1668th
Total points: 2686

Total captain points: 682
Captains: Salah (20), Son (5), Ronaldo (3), Lukaku (2), Weghorst, Mount, James, Fernandes, Dennis, Cancelo, Bowen, Antonio
Total transfers: 50
Total points hits: 68
Immediate transfer points: 412
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (10), 4-4-2 (9), 3-5-2 (6)

The world number 11 in 2018/19 added to their list of impressive finishes in 2021/22, with a third overall rank within the top 3k in the last four years.

And that’s despite registering just 682 captaincy points, 150 fewer than Brusdal Brusdal’s total.

Along with Petteri, David was also one of the more aggressive managers in terms of transfers, taking 68 total points hits across the season.

8 MARKKU OJALA

Overall rank: 123rd
Total points: 2752

Total captain points: 768
Captains: Salah (17), Ronaldo (6), Son (4), Jota, Antonio (2), Weghorst, Richarlison, Raphinha, Lacazette, King, Havertz, Bowen
Total transfers: 49
Total points hits: 64
Immediate transfer points: 477
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (11), 4-4-2, 3-5-2 (9)

Markku Ojala’s 2021/22 rank of 123rd was achieved with seven green arrows in the last eight Gameweeks, despite all but one chip having been spent before that point.

His Gameweek 33 rank of 5,335 was a particular highlight, as nine of his starting XI returned, including hat-trick hero and captain Cristiano Ronaldo.

The last seven seasons for Markku have been a real success story: the Finn has finished inside the top 25k in each of those campaigns, with two of the last three being within the top 1k.

9 TOM STEPHENSON

Overall rank: 22,133rd
Total points: 2592

Total captain points: 670
Captains: Salah (18), Ronaldo (5), Kane (3), Son, Antonio (2), Wood, Weghorst, Rudiger, Richarlison, Mount, King, Jota, Fernandes
Total transfers: 46
Total points hits: 56
Immediate transfer points: 438
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (11), 4-4-2 (8), 3-5-2, 4-3-3 (7)

The fact that an overall rank of 22,133 was enough to see Tom drop seven places in our Hall of Fame reflects how ridiculous the standard is at the upper echelons.

Tom spent the entirety of 2021/22 inside the top 60,000, but suffered due to his 670 captaincy points total, which was 162 points fewer than Brusdal Brusdal and 106 behind Fábio.

One of the most consistent managers since the turn of the last decade, Tom Stephenson has never finished outside the top 30k in his last 12 seasons.

10 PETTERI YLIMAA

Overall rank: 837th
Total points: 2706

Total captain points: 808
Captains: Salah (19), Son (4), Fernandes, Antonio (3), Bowen (2), Weghorst, Richarlison, Mount, King, Kane, Jota, James
Total transfers: 50
Total points hits: 68
Immediate transfer points: 437
Most-used formations: 3-4-3 (15), 3-5-2, 4-4-2 (8)

Another flying Finn in our table-topping list, Petteri finished 837th in 2021/22.

Gameweek 38 was the first time that our new Hall of Fame number 10 had ventured inside the top 1k in the season just gone, with five chips deployed in the final nine Gameweeks to aid with that late surge.

Petteri was the only manager on this list to use the Free Hit chip in Blank Gameweek 30, which saw him record an impressive Gameweek rank of 56,289, despite including Raul Jimenez who was sent off, registering -2 points in the process.

TAKEAWAY LESSONS

Salah Triple Captain, Son in: FPL Double Gameweek 26 reaction 2

The 2021/22 season is over, but were there any collective trends amongst the top FPL bosses that we can learn from?

Firstly, 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 were the most widely used formations across the season, with nine of the top 10 setting up their Gameweek 1 squads in one of those two shapes.

However, as the season progressed, back-four formations like 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 were more widely used, especially by the top three Fábio, Finn and John.

Fábio, meanwhile, still trusted Mohamed Salah with the armband, despite his post-Africa Cup of Nations wobble. For example, the Hall of Fame number one captained the Egyptian in five of the last nine Gameweeks he was available for.

Aside from Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo, Son Heung-min and Harry Kane were the most popular captain picks, while two matches trumped one, with the top bosses handing Wout Weghorst and one of Emmanuel Dennis or Josh King the armband for Burnley and Watford’s respective double-headers.

Notably, all of them used their first Wildcard prior to Gameweek 10, but this coming season could perhaps present different challenges, with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar taking place in November.

HALL OF FAME FAQ

How is my rating calculated?
The “HoF Rating” is based on your points scores from previous FPL seasons, with the latest season weighted the heaviest and each corresponding season weighted at roughly 80% that of the previous season. So, in other words, those who performed best in 2021/22 will receive a bigger HoF Rating boost from those who did best in 2007/08. The “HoF Ranking” even allows for those with missing years, adapting the formula accordingly to allow rookies to rank alongside the veterans of FPL.

How do I join the Hall of Fame?
Simply sign up to our leagues next season, either the Fantasy Football Scout league or, if you’re a member, the Fantasy Football Scout Members’ league – the code for the latter will be available on the dashboard of the Members’ Area after launch.

How do I find myself in the Hall of Fame?
The search box at the top of the ranking tables allows you to search by surname or by FPL ID.

What if I don’t want to be listed?
Either notify us via support@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk or simply leave the relevant Fantasy Football Scout FPL league and you’ll be removed on the next update.

When does the Hall of Fame get updated?
The Career table is available to all and is updated at the end of each season to display the latest rankings. The Live version, accessible only to Members, is updated sporadically throughout the season to reflect the scores of the current campaign.

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